Page:The American Cyclopædia (1879) Volume VIII.djvu/660

 046 HENRY VI. (ENGLAND) cess. The French vainly sought peace. The Scots invaded England, and were beaten. Lord Cobham was captured in Wales, and ex- ecuted as a traitor and a heretic. Rouen was besieged, and, after a long and terrible de- fence, was taken Jan. 19, 1419. The duke of Brittany, following the example of the duke of Burgundy, joined Henry. An interview be- tween the French and English authorities hav- ing produced no effect, the war was renewed, victory remaining with Henry. The murder of the duke of Burgundy by partisans of the dauphin caused the French king to denounce his own son, and to resolve that Henry should be made regent of France. At the end of No- vember, 1419, an arrangement was made that Charles VI. should remain king while he lived, but that, because of his insanity, Henry should become regent, and, marrying the princess Catharine, should succeed him on his death. An armistice was concluded, from which the dauphin and his party were excluded. The two kingdoms were to be united, and a treaty was made at Troyes, May 21, 1420. The same day Henry and Catharine were affianced, and their marriage took place June 2. A large part of France continued faithful to the dau- phin, and he was aided by the Scots, but the successes of the English continued. Henry returned to England, where Catharine was crowned, Feb. 24, 1421. He made a journey to the north, during which he received news of the battle of Beauge, in which the French and Scots defeated and killed his brother Clar- ence. Making his brother Bedford regent, he returned to France in the summer, where his usual good fortune in war awaited him ; but nothing could overcome the stubborn resistance of the loyal portion of the French nation. Henry had planned a crusade when he was seized with a fatal illness, the exact nature of which is unknown. " Memorials of Henry the Fifth, King of England," edited by Charles Augustus Cole, of the public record office, were published in London in 1858 by the au- thority of the lords commissioners of the treasury, under the direction of the master of the rolls. U A History of Henry V.," by G. M. Towle, was published in New York in 1866. HENRY VI., son of the preceding and of Catharine of France, and last monarch of the Lancastrian dynasty, born in Windsor, Dec. 6, 1421, believed to have been killed in the tower in May, 1471. His reign is reckoned as having begun Sept. 1, 1422, the day after his father's death, when he was only nine months old. Parliament declared him king of France and England, and lord of Ireland, and created his father's eldest brother, the duke of Bedford, protector, defender, and chief counsellor of the kingdom and church, and provided that whenever the duke of Bedford was absent, his father's younger brother, the duke of Glouces- ter, should act in his place. The care of his person and education was confided to the earl of Warwick and to Bishop (afterward Cardinal) Beaufort. Charles VI. of France having died soon afterward (October, 1422), Henry was also proclaimed king of France in all those parts of that country which were in the pos- session of the English, while Charles VII. was crowned by the French the same year at Poitiers. A long struggle ensued between the supporters of Henry and those of Charles, in which the English had the advantage until Joan of Arc turned the scale. Henry was crowned at London in 1429 and at Paris in 1431, the protectorate then ending. During his minority there had been much conten- tion between Cardinal Beaufort and the duke of Gloucester, and the king's coronation was a triumph of the former, who then gave to the government a strong ecclesiastical ten- dency, which was offensive both to the people and to the aristocracy. It was found that Henry had inherited none of the martial quali- ties of his father. The Beaufort party ar- ranged a match between him and Margaret of Anjou, daughter of Rene" of Provence. The marriage, which took place April 22, 1445, was unpopular in England, both on account of Margaret's relationship to the French king, and because, in return for her hand, Maine and Anjou were surrendered to her father, who claimed them by right of inheritance. A truce which had been negotiated with France was prolonged upon terms considered disadvantage- ous to England. In 1447 both Beaufort and Gloucester died, and the earl of Suffolk be- came the most powerful person in the king- dom ; he was first created marquis, then duke, and received other high offices and prefer- ments. But as through him both the marriage and the truce had been negotiated, he was greatly disliked. The ill will with which he was regarded was aggravated by disasters suf- fered in France when hostilities were renewed. Finally his enemies procured his banishment from England, pursued him after he had left it, and had him murdered (1450). His death did < not allay the popular dissatisfaction, which rendered Jack Cade's insurrection temporarily successful. Meanwhile the English continued to lose ground in France. In 1451 they had lost all their French possessions except Calais. Popular attention began to be directed toward Richard, duke of York, as the rightful heir to the throne. He was descended from Lionel, duke of Clarence, third son of Edward III., while Henry himself was descended from John, duke of Lancaster, Edward II I. 's fourth son. Henry's weakness, and the general unpopular- ity of the government, encouraged York, who was much loved because of his bravery, mild- ness, and good conduct both in public and pri- vate life, to put forward his claims. His im- mense possessions gave him vast influence. His wife was a Neville, and he had the sup- port of the ablest members of that family, the earls of Salisbury and Warwick, father and son. So long as no offspring followed from the marriage of Henry and Margaret, it was believed